Bruckner, Mühlbacher, Sargfabrik Vienna, and so on...

Bruckner, Mühlbacher, Sargfabrik Vienna, and so on…

Jan Hocek – text, Michal Sýkora – photo, video

There are concert experiences that are unforgettable for a long time. But there are also experiences that become a permanent part of life, etched not only in memory, but also in memes, and even in genes! Doesn’t that sound far-fetched? Perhaps, but the concert of the big band MÜHLBACHER’S USW at the Sargfabrik Club in Vienna on 18 December 2024 is one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences…

It was the debut of the „Wege zur Vierten“ programme, which was released this year as a double album on the Thereo Music label. By „Path to the Fourth“ is meant the journey to the 4th Symphony by the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), a representative of the Romanticism at its peak. Indeed, this symphony (1876-1881) is entitled „Romantic“. And the jazz composer, arranger, drummer and bandleader Christian Mühlbacher made the journey to it.

Mühlbacher founded the big band USW (an abbreviation of Und So Weiter or And So On) in 1997. The master of the big sound, as he is called, had already made a name for himself in the late 1980s with the big band Nouvelle Cousine. He studied composition with contemporary classical composer Kurt Schwertsik, arranging and jazz theory with Heinz Czadek and percussion with Fritz Ozmetz. He also attended workshops with George Russell and Gil Evans.

The Bruckner double album contains 16 pieces, nine of which are adaptations of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony and six of which Mühlbacher composed inspired by themes from the symphony. The project took a full 13 years to crystallize. The first version was performed in 2011, the second a year later. This year, the Bruckner Year, the project came to fruition thanks to a successful concert at Vienna’s Porgy & Bess club on 5 April, the recording of which was made into the double album. And it culminates with a fourth, and supposedly final, performance on 18 December at the Sargbrik, where my colleague Michal Sýkora and I were able to be. The evening was also divided into two parts. If we thought that the first one could not be surpassed, we were deeply mistaken…

And why did Mühlbacher choose Bruckner to reinterpret and recompose? There is an experience from his early childhood, when Christian, aged about five or six, sat alone in the auditorium of the Vienna concert hall at a dress rehearsal of the Fourth Symphony, because his father played the first horn in the orchestra. And the boy’s adventurous fantasies were awakened. The second impulse was the encouragement in 2011 by the Brucknertage, a showcase of Bruckner’s music in St. Florian, to create a full-length programme on the theme of the Fourth.

In the world of symphony orchestras, there is a twofold basic approach to the interpretation of this work. One favors the quiet tempos, the multi-colored sound of the strings, the harmonic breaths and timpani that make the romance feel good. However, we, Czechs and Slovaks, should prefer the more fractious romanticism, in which the brass tear the sound picture to pieces, with the powerful contribution of rhythmic thunder and lightning. And with appropriate beats as the heartbeat, often excited to the point of overdrive. After all, I personally would imagine in Bruckner’s music rather unfulfilled desire and passion without satisfaction…

And that is the Brucknerian music of Mühlbacher’s jazz ensemble USW. In terms of instrumentation, it focuses on the dominance of brass instruments, often in the lower registers, to achieve a dense, swelling sound. Keyboards and electronics enhance all of this. The saxophones provide counterpoint and tonal contrast. The rhythmic playing is not complicated, but it is refreshed by Latin elements. The beat is saturated with a straightforward rock beat. Mühlbacher, however, achieves incredible expressive power in the brass arrangements. His imagination plays with the most complex polyphonic images, from soaring grandeur to frantic clusters. He prefers to draw on sheet music and knead the art of arranging rather than rely on spontaneous improvisation. And if improvisation, then under his baton, controlled.

The eighteen-member ensemble roared, exploded with energy, played dynamically changing, with a huge dose of musicianly empathy, literally over the top. But it also played in a pastoral spirit, thanks to the combination of organ and flugelhorn. Compared to the recording, one tuba was lost, but one bastrombone was added. There was also a horn (Máté Borbíró). In the saxophone section there was a gigantic bass saxophone (Fabian Rucker), which not only rhythmized but also mastered the solo choruses. The trumpet (and flugelhorn) section was four-headed and variously coloured, the trombone earthy and dense, the rhythmics enhanced by electric guitar (Peter Rom), bass (Tibor Köverdi), percussion, especially congas and bongos (Laurinho Bandeira), and the keyboardist Geri Schuller was also unmistakable. The latter also shines as a mercurial and capable soloist; for example, in the second encore he absolutely excelled!

After all, all the players deserve a commendation for their performance…

And the sound! He started with an electronics player (Charly Petermichl) and ended with a sound engineer (Ronny Matky). The overall impression was completed by the video (Willy Wysoudil).

Photos and video by Michal Sýkora will complete everything…

Video excerpt from the second half of the concert:

Mühlbacher ´s USW,... - Wege zur Vierten, Sargfabrik / Vienna, 18.Dec. 2024